How to Play the Splashies Side Game in Golf
Splashies is the name of a side bet in golf that pays off any time a golfer in your group makes par on a hole after hitting into a pond, lake, creek, stream or other standing body of water. (What are called penalty areas today but used to be called water hazards.)
Hit your drive (or any other shot) into water, take a drop, and still make par? You just won a splashie: splish, splash, cash. If your group agreed before the round that a splashie would be worth one dollar, then you just won a dollar from each of the other golfers in your group.
You can also play splashies for points rather than dollar amounts. If that's the case, golfers typically combine splashies with other, similar side bets (such as Arnies, barkies, scuffies, etc.) and add up all the points at the end of the round.
To win a splashie, your ball must actually be in water (just being inside the boundary of a penalty area, but your ball still sitting on land, doesn't count). Your ball must actually go into a body of water, and yet you still make par.
Of course, achieving par after hitting into water is tough to do, even for very good golfers. If you want to open up more possibilities, your group can agree to pay out splashies after net pars, rather than gross pars. Or you can change the par requirement to a bogey or net bogey requirement. The specific details of the bet are up to the members of any group that is playing the splashies game.
The splashies bet is also commonly known by the name Fishies, as well as Cousteau and Shark.
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